Source
r/USAA•
Askol

Need to make a wire transfer for a deposit on a home, and nobody seems to be able to access my account - I'm at a total loss.

So I need to make a domestic wire transfer above $10K, and no matter what team I speak to, they say they are unable to access my account and there is a restriction/hold placed on it. They can't tell me why there is a restriction/hold, they can't tell me which team I need to speak to, and they can't even give me a direct number to call that team. The hold for that team is 2.5-3hrs, and despite trying to wait for hours, I continually seem to get disconnected before I'm actually able to speak with somebody. At this point I've spent a collective 10 hours on hold, haven't gotten ANY helpful info, and I have no clue what else I can do at this point. I may lose this home if I can't send it ASAP, and am looking for any helpful advice.

I've tweeted their USAA_Help twitter account, sent them a DM, spoken to multiple different teams, tried going through the chat, and nobody has given me anything resembling helpful information.

ANY guidance would be extremely appreciated.

PS I can't believe I used to recommend people switch to USAA - this is likely the worst customer service experience I've had in my life.

Posted Mar 29, 2022, 6:13 PM UTC

921
pfabs•

This is a really weird experience. I bought a house cash a little over a year ago. Took me about 20 minutes total to call USAA and have the wire transfer completed.

Most of that time was spent going over everything 3-4 times to make sure we had the correct information and I didn't lose all of that money.

3
AskolOP•

This is what I expected - however it was a 2.5 hours hold just to talk to somebody from the wire team, only to find out they couldn't access my account or even tell me why they were unable to do so. I've probably spoken to 15 people at this point, and nobody can tell me anything. It's so frustrating I can't even put it into words.

2
pfabs•

That's so weird. Is this a normal checking account or is this like a specialty account?

I transferred all my money to my checking account to make it easier.

1
AskolOP•

Just a standard checking account, and I'm able to access it on my end - customer service just seems to be unable to do so.

1
pfabs•

Sorry you're going through all this. I wish your experience was as quick and easy as mine.

1
Cute_Yogurtcloset_72•

My question is: Can you access that account?

1
AskolOP•

Yep - Can access everything, and there isn't even anything indicating that there is an issue that needs to be addressed.

I'm able to make payments and transfer money (under $5K), but for some reason nobody in customer support can access anything.

2
cr0wit0•

A lock? There are different types, you may need to talk to deposits or security. The locks are often because too much money too fast was moved, bad checks or bad checks deposit, or checks that have not been clear yet. Also logins at multiple machines from different cities including mobile. Also because you can not fully identify your membership, that could also trigger a lock. This includes any members that derive from your membership; so let say you have a son with usaa access and he wrote a bad check, all usaa members will have the same lock. (All members that come from the sponsor)

3
AskolOP•

Thanks - I did receive a large transfer from my father back in December to help me with paying for a down payment, however I haven't received any notifications that there were any issues with my account. I would have expected somebody to contact me in the last four months if that transfer was flagged, right? However there's no message or anything indicating that there is a problem.

I'm also fully able to access the account on my end, I can make purchases and transfer money, so it doesn't seem there's a total block on the account. The account is definitely in good standing, and we definitely haven't written any bad checks or anything like that.

I just don't know what else to do, as nobody seems to be able to actually tell me what the problem is.

6
[deleted]•

Former employee here (left USAA last year). Per the depository agreement, USAA has the right to hold any funds for any reason. It’s likely a fraud issue. They want to make sure your deposit is valid before you wire funds out so you don’t end up with a negative balance.

3
AskolOP•

Yeah - i finally got through to somebody (after holding for more than 3 hours, now up to 12 hours total), and he started asking me for information on that transfer. What makes no sense is that nobody contacted me or even suggested USAA had suspicions of that transfer being fraudulent. Until I called them, nobody said anything to me about it - I get that they have the right to hold onto funds, but I feel like they should have an obligation to let me know if that's what they're doing.

I also would have been totally fine with them just reversing the charge to my dad - at least he could have then wired the deposit.

I completely understand why this would have been flagged - that's reasonable. However this overall situation is completely inexcusable from a customer service perspective - I mean I just can't understand how they can defend (1) not saying anything to me, (2) not even identifying the issue when other reps looked into my account, and (3) making the only possible resolution requiring hours and hours on hold in order to even talk to somebody who could pull up my account. Like how can they expect to keep any customers with these kind of processes?

6
[deleted]•

I agree - inexcusable! So about 3 years ago, some “genius” decided to get rid of the fraud call center and make the fraud analysts take calls. This causes us to constantly be behind on cases, increasing the hold times. Their fraud analysts are constantly on mandatory overtime to accommodate for that work shortage.

3
MamacitaCoco•

I worked in consumer loans 5 years ago and we were always so backed up with unlimited overtime. I hated working Saturdays cause I’d always be there hours after from everyone in the queue. They definitely need more call centers.

2
mreed911•

It's non-standard, but you could ask the title company if they'd do an ACH pull (not a push from USAA), or you could potentially request a certified check sent overnight. I'm sure they've had edge cases before where large transfers locked things up.

2
AskolOP•

Thanks - this is actually a deposit that's supposed to go to the Seller's Attorney to hold in escrow. This is a solid idea though, I may reach out to them to see if they'd be able to do it this way. I'd obviously much rather just get it resolved though!

2
MrUnlucky•

I am having issues with ridiculous hold times as well... and once I get through, no one knows or they tell me something that turns out not to be true.

I put in a complaint with the BBB, and the CEO's office called me pretty quickly after that. Unfortunately, someone had told me that the issue would be resolved by close of business last Friday... but still not resolved!!! I called again to see what was going on, and was told that the issue was still under investigation and it could take a while before they finish. She tried expediting the investigation, but seems like it's not going to actually speed anything up.

2
AskolOP•

Hmm, I was fortunately finally able to get in touch with somebody who had the necessary access rights to lift the hold on my account. It took 10-12 hours of waiting on hold, but my transfer went through this morning.

1
[deleted]•

[removed]

1
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1
CZlover90•

Seems to match our current “restricted access” protocol. No one seems to care; Sucks for you, I’m glad you finally got it to work

1